I remember going to Belnarring in the late 1950s to where Uncle Edd and Aunty Beryl were camping . I assume in was in Summer close to Christmas as that was when most people did their camping in those days. It must have been in the late 50s because I remember in 1960 camping at Portarlington and I remember going to Balnarring before then.

I remember my grandmother, (Nan) telling me, that it was quite rough staying with Uncle Ed at Balnarring because he never used to rope up the edges of the tent so that when it became windy it would blow through the tent.

3 things I remember about the Balnarring camping area.

1. It was reasonably large. Well-being only 8 years old. I probably thought it was large cos it took some time to walk through it. To get water there was a hand pump. I distinctly remember going to get water and pumping the handle. I see from the history of Balnarring below, that there was a spring running through the place.

2. I went with my cousin Marilyn to a house, that must have belonged to a fisherman, near the camping area, where there was this gigantic dead fish. Must have been some sort of a shark. It was laying in the driveway of the house. It had some sort of a fishing line or cable going into its mouth and the local kids would pull on the cable and hold it up to open the shark or whatever it was, mouth. I distinctly remember the mouth was big enough for a person to fit in

3. I only remember one evening. I'm not even sure if we stayed overnight. That evening they had an outdoor movie. It was in the camping area itself. Or at least on the edge of it. I have no idea of what the name of the movie we watching was, but I do remember there were two people dancing and one of them said to the other oh we're doing rock and roll. That was the first time ever I've heard that expression.

I also have a great memory of eating an Eskimo pie ice cream. It was a block of ice cream wrapped in foil but when you bought it you're also got two crispy wafers that which you would put on either side of the block of ice cream when you would eat it.

Marg and I are going to go to Tasmania in March 2019. As we will probably be staying with Margs Sister Mary, at Nar Nar Goon, it won't be too far to drive down to Balnarring have a look.

So I've done a bit of research and found there are three camping areas now at Balnarring Beach.

https://www.balnarring.net/camping/

I have a gut feeling that we stayed at the middle one. Only because I think it was a fair walk from the camping area to the beach. But I may be wrong.

I've had a look at Google Maps and Google Street View of the free camping areas and because things have changed so much over the years is very difficult determine which one we stayed at.

Perhaps Marilyn knows more.

http://bpadula.tripod.com/balnarring/id2.html

http://mpnews.com.au/2017/04/24/new-owner-sets-store-by-history/

http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1545431563532~561&locale=en_AU&metadata_object_ratio=10&show_metadata=true&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/singleViewer.do?&preferred_usage_type=VIEW_MAIN&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=10&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true